Increasing percentages of devices connected to the Internet or other global networks are not used by people in the familiar way that personal computers, tablets and smart phones are. Interconnected devices monitor the environment, structures, transportation systems, factories, farms, forests, utilities, soil and weather conditions, oceans and resources. Many of these sensors and actuators are networked into autonomous sets, with much of the information being exchanged machine-to-machine directly and without human involvement.
Machine-to-machine communications are typically brief and specialized. Most sensors and actuators will report or act upon small pieces of information. For purposes of the systems described in this application these terse messages are “chirps.” Burdening these devices with prior art standard network protocol stacks is inefficient, unnecessary and unduly increases their cost of ownership.
Machine-to-machine communications dominate in several applications, including the field referred to as the “Internet of Things.” As described in this application, the architecture optimized for the Internet of Things necessarily entails a widely distributed topology relying on simpler chirp protocols, especially at the edges of the network where the machine-to-machine communications predominate. Intermediate network elements perform information propagation, manage broadcasts, and provide protocol translation. Another class of devices house integrator functions providing higher-level analysis, for both near-edge analytics and broader-scope analysis. Small chirp data provides the necessary information for analytical systems.
The system as described in the application is described using certain analogies, such as the propagation of pollen, and interaction of social insects.
This application describes reasons why a different architecture is needed for the Internet of Things. The architectures described can coexist with existing incumbent networking protocols. In one embodiment, the architecture comprises integrator functions, propagator nodes, and end devices, and their interactions.